Redhawk Caldera scholars will but nourish evil

He hadn't returned home empty-handed, per se, but he hadn't found Finley. Disappointed and weary, Peregrine retired to the den he and Fox had chosen for their future offspring. He lay there with no intentions of moving anytime soon, though of course someone would summon him urgently. When Peregrine recognized the voice, every single blade of fur on his spine stood on end. He rose to his feet and emerged from the small burrow, feeling a thrill of excitement and a dash of trepidation mixed with burning curiosity, smoldering longing and a blitz of fierce resentment.

When he plodded toward his borders to find his wife facing off with his former flame, Peregrine felt a giant dose of sadness mix into the emotional cocktail. The three of them could have been a team, siring and raising Fox's pups as a triad... but they didn't even like one another, much less love each other. Peregrine eyed them from a distance, wondering what Fox was saying to Lasher.

At length, he slunk down the mountainside like a black panther. "Lasher, unless you have some dire news from the plateau, I think you should go. And tell our sister pack to send a less... controversial messenger next time." Peregrine felt like a jerk even as the words left his lips but didn't Lasher understand how torturous this was for him? He needed time and space if he ever hoped to heal; they both did. Seeing each other kept reopening the wounds. His jade eyes brimmed with apology and a need for understanding, though he stood firmly, his posture unwelcoming, to punctuate his words.